[Aureilius]

..I just get the message;
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Dear Customer,

You are currently trying to read a disc in the UDF Packetwriting format.
You are seeing this message instead of the contents of the disc because your system currently does not support the UDF format.

To make your System UDF compatible, we have developed a complimentary software tool, the InCD EasyWrite Reader.

To download the latest InCD EasyWrite Reader just visit our website at
http://www.nero.com/en/index.html#c1023204918939


Your Ahead Software Team
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I have gone to this site and cannot find this EasyWrite reader, nor does a google search yeild anything useful.

Can anyone help!

Thanks.

[lister]

http://www.nero.com/en/InCD_4_Reader.html

[Aureilius]

Thanks for that lister, unfortunately it hasn't solved the problem. I now get a windows 'grey box' that says ; In order to install InCD reader it is necessary that InCD version 4.2.5.0 or higher is installed on your system.

Have I somehow lost this when I reformated the HDD? If so how, since I only use an XP recovery disc which should restore the comp to how it was when I bought it,, ie, all utility software included?

Edit; excuse the possibly dumb Q's but I;ve only recently bought the computer!!

[lister]

I don't have much experience with this sort of thing, but you could try opening the CD with isobuster http://www.smart-projects.net/isobuster/
or similar and extracting the files with that.

[deepdiver01]

Could you give us some more details.

What is your OS. Whish burning software came with your CD/RW (I am assuming that it is Nero).

If it is Nero, go straight to Nero Express, instead of In CD (there is a button in there somewhere, I cannot remember what it looks loke; or you can go to programs>nero>nero express).

Make sure that Nero is recognising your burner (in the upper box).

What you want to create is a data file which will handle image files perfectly. It is the one to use.

Click on add and highlight and add to your hearts content.

Click finished when you have what you want, click next on the main page, click burn and Bob's your uncle.

Personally, and the view of many others I know, InCD is over engineered when it comes to relatively simple tasks like documents, folders and image files, etc..

Nero Express does everything perfectly and extremely simple to use.

I have been using it for years with image files up to 250mb without a single problem.

Any problems, I will be here for the next few hours (crashes excepted).

[slipe]

The reader is for people who do not have InCD on their computer. I don’t see how it could be asking for a specific version number or higher unless InCD is on your system already. If you don’t have InCD the reader should just install.

Start>Control Panel>Add or Remove Programs. Look for InCD. If it is there it probably needs to be updated. It wouldn’t be the first time the restore CD that came with the computer didn’t have the same version that came on the computer for some of the software. If you can’t find it look in “All Programs” or do a search for InCD. My guess is that an older version is on the CD than came on the computer and it won’t read the UDF recorded with a newer version. That seems a little absurd, but anything is possible with computers.

If your version is so old that you can’t update it I would just uninstall InCD and install the free reader. Far and away the easiest way to record simple tasks like photos is to use the built-in XP CD writer. And you would still have Nero or Nero Express on the computer for more complicated recording jobs.

Even if you get InCD updated and working, it is NOT a rational way to archive your photos. Packet writing to RW media is fraught with ways to lose your data. Packet writing and RW are good ways to temporarily back up stuff up that you also keep on the computer. It is a really bad idea for anything you are going to remove from the computer. Without InCD on the computer you can just drag items you want to record to your CD drive letter in Windows Explorer or My Computer and the XP writer will write them multi-session to a CDR.

[johnni]

If you created a CD they should play on any PC. The message you received relating to UDF sounds as though you have a formatted CD-RW not a CD. I recently acquired a PC loaded with XP but without a CD burner. I have a lot of CD-RWs loaded with images which I created using Nero InCD on my main (WinME) PC (as backup only). But I wanted to play these CD-RWs on the XP PC so I downloaded this UDF reader and they play just as well as on the ME PC. Not having a CD burner the XP PC does not have any burning program installed.

johnni

[Aureilius]

Thanks guys. Lots of info there to take in. I'm gonna give it a read over. Hope I can reply In due course.

Once again, thanks.

[Aureilius]

Forgive the late reply, I have limited internet acsess.

Thanks again lister. The program tells me that I still own the files but requires registration and cash to get to them!

Deepdiver, hey.
My OS is a retore version of XP. The only Nero I have is StartSmart, which offers the option of 'burn data cd' but it has my kids Xmas & B'day pics on it so I'm reluctant to do stuff I'm not sure about. The only Nero that appears on the add/remove menu is InCD4.

Slipe. Hey dude. I agree completly that this situation is absurd. Truth is, I'm tempted to pay for the data recovery software, but I'm slightly outraged that Nero are saying "nuh nuh na nuh nuh, you can't get you're dataa". Don't know much about packet writing, I just wanted to save some stuff before a clean up!

Jonni. You're right..my mistake. It was a DVD-RW. Somehow I can still view data on CD's. More that that, I can view it on my DVD player attached to the TV. But not this DVD.
I downloaded the link but things are still the same..
.

In any case. Thanks for all the feedback.